Editorial · Resident Welfare, Civic Participation & Community
Who Really Knows Your Neighbourhood?
The Case for Lane Bhagidari
Who knows a neighbourhood best?
The lady who walks her dog every evening knows which streetlight has not worked for a week. A senior citizen knows which pavement has become difficult to negotiate. Parents know where speeding vehicles endanger children. Those of us who rescue stray dogs and cats know the stretches where animals are repeatedly at risk and where a speed breaker may genuinely be necessary. A resident who has lived beside a green belt for decades knows its trees, its birds and its changing environment, and will probably notice damage long before it reaches any official file.
There is no reason why this intimate knowledge of a neighbourhood must first travel through an RWA office before reaching the authority responsible for acting upon it.
The RWA and the Resident
I say this with considerable respect for the institution of the RWA. My late father, Shri J.R. Luthra, spent years working for resident welfare in S-Block, and I grew up seeing both the value of such organisations and the effort required to run them. But the RWA has, in many places, become disproportionately important as the presumed gateway between a resident and government. The world in which that system developed was very different from the one in which we live today.
An incident from some years ago illustrates the point rather well.
The beautiful green belt adjoining our homes in S-Block, Greater Kailash-I was under threat. There was an attempt to assert a claim over the land, along with the threat of trees being cut, and we approached the police.
The SHO at the time, Sandeep Ghai, was a very able officer. He advised that the RWA should formally write to the police about the incident and the attempted encroachment. We therefore approached the RWA President and Secretary.
As I remember it, they could not find the RWA letterhead.
There was a problem on the ground, the police were asking for a formal representation, and we were looking for stationery.
My neighbour Rajesh Khosla and I carried on. My father had suffered a brain stroke and my mother was battling tuberculosis at the time, but we were still getting up around four in the morning, preparing handbills, slipping them into newspapers, collecting signatures and approaching residents, authorities and senior police officers. Other residents joined the effort and eventually the green belt was protected.
I have remembered that incident for years because the question behind it has never really gone away. If residents understand a problem, are directly affected by it and are willing to pursue it, why should everything wait for whoever happens to be President or Secretary that year?
When Residents and Representatives Talk Directly
The recent road-recarpeting exercise in S-Block brought the same issue back in a different context. There have been shortcomings in communication and coordination, and I have raised them openly. At the same time, Greater Kailash MLA Shikha Rai and Municipal Councillor Anjum Mandal have been accessible when residents approached them. Even a few potholes outside our home were attended to after we pointed them out. Frankly, it was a small job we could probably have arranged ourselves, but a small request was not ignored, and that deserves acknowledgement.
If something is wrong, say so. If something gets done, acknowledge it. Civic engagement need not become either a felicitation ceremony or a fight.
The Lane Has a History
The road exercise also exposed an interesting confusion about the identity of our own stretch. It has been called the “Back Lane”, although it is one of the longest stretches in the block; “Nala Road”, although what runs alongside it is a rainwater drain; and, more recently, “Forest Lane”.
For those of us who have lived here for decades, S-Block Heritage Green Lane is a more accurate description. Around 30–35 years ago, nearly 5,000 saplings were planted along this green belt. I helped plant and nurture many of them, watering them from the old hand pump with the DDA mali. Those saplings are the large trees we see today, with peacocks and migratory birds around them. Residents know the history of this stretch because they have lived it.
The Case for Lane Bhagidari
This is where I see a role for what I would call Lane Bhagidari.
By Lane Bhagidari, I mean giving residents a more direct role in the welfare of their immediate surroundings without creating another association, another election or another set of office-bearers. Different people will naturally contribute to different issues. Someone understands trees, another animal welfare, another drainage or accessibility, while somebody else may know the department or representative who needs to be contacted.
Lane Bhagidari means giving residents a more direct role in the welfare of their immediate surroundings, without creating another association, election or set of office-bearers.
From the Typewriter to Direct Communication
The traditional RWA structure developed when communication itself was an elaborate exercise. A letter had to be dictated to a secretary, typed on a manual or electric typewriter, checked for spelling and corrected, sometimes with the entire page having to be typed again. It was then signed, placed in an envelope, stamped and posted, couriered or hand-delivered to a government office. An organised body performing that function was naturally important.
Today a resident can photograph a problem, document it, discuss it with neighbours and communicate directly with the Councillor, MLA or concerned department within minutes. The RWA can participate. Independent resident groups can participate. There is ample room for everyone.
Come and Walk the Lane
I would also like to see Councillors and MLAs occasionally walk these lanes with the people who actually live there. No stage, microphone, bouquet or elaborate inspection. Just walk. A short visit can reveal where water collects, where vehicles speed, where animals are at risk, where trees require attention and why something described casually as a “back lane” may have an entirely different history and significance for those who have lived there for half a century.
No stage, microphone, bouquet or elaborate inspection. Just walk.
The RWA will remain relevant, but it need no longer be the only doorway through which a resident participates in civic life. Our neighbourhoods have changed, our means of communication have changed, and residents today have far greater access to the people who represent them.
Lane Bhagidari gives residents a more direct role in the welfare of the place they call home.
Shamshir Rai Luthra
Veteran broadcaster, editor, environmental thinker, and senior consumer and civic rights advocate, Shamshir Rai Luthra writes at the intersection of media, ecology, community life and citizen participation. Founder of Samudayvani, his work draws upon decades of engagement with neighbourhood issues and resident welfare.
